For when I need more than 140 characters to finish a thought on marketing, media or message. Or photography.

Tag Archives: political ads

ED’S NOTE:This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in political advertising, search-engine optimization, and viral marketing as it is used on the campaign trail. No candidates or political groups are endorsed. The opinions expressed here about the advertisements are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

The same day Rick Santorum suspends his bid for the GOP nomination, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has turned his focus on President Obama and Florida — home of the hanging chads and a big, fat pot of 27 electoral votes. It’s also where Obama is in Boca Raton pitching his “Buffett Rule,” a highly disputed proposal that “asks” everyone to pay their “fair share” and really goes after the nation’s highest earners to ensure they pay a higher tax rate than, say, stiffs like you and me. It’s named for gazillionaire Warren Buffett, who was real sad in 2011 about paying a lower effective tax rate on his income, than I do did his secretary.

When Barack Obama is in Florida today, ask him about the forgotten millions.

~ Super-timely Romney ad posted the same day of O’s visit

Almost-gazillionaire Romney is real sad for the folks in Florida, and he wants them to know it come November. Titled “President Obama Has Failed Florida Workers” — is that SEO I smell? — Romney’s one-minute-12-second video was uploaded on YouTube April 10, the day of Obama’s visit. (Wouldn’t you want to run it before he came to town? Give voters some notice?) It isn’t narrated, there are no hokey kitchen-table scenes, but rather, a series of on-screen text blocks with stark facts about Florida’s joblessness, set to an ominous Hans Zimmer-esque soundtrack.

Among the scary factoids that will drive Floridians to the polls to cast their vote for Mitt:

At the time of this writing, the clip had 210 views, 18 likes, 6 dislikes. My day was already terrible enough, so I could not make myself log on to Romney’s Facebook page to see how it was faring there.

ED’S NOTE:This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in political advertising, search-engine optimization, and viral marketing as it is used on the campaign trail. No candidates or political groups are endorsed. The opinions expressed here about the advertisements are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

Hold on to your lunch.

Mitt Romney’s camp is trying to instruct Alaskans how to vote in an advertisement that seems to have been inspired by Coldplay. Alaska is one of the 10 states holding contests March 6, the much-anticipated Super Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Rick Santorum wants to be your neighbor in this ad that may feature a sweater vest from the closet of the late-Mr. Rogers. I jest: The sweater is obviously from the Rick Santorum Collection on sale now at J.C. Penney Kmart.

ED’S NOTE:This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in political advertising, search-engine optimization, and viral marketing as it is used on the campaign trail. No candidates or political groups are endorsed. The opinions expressed here about the advertisements are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

After Mitt Romney bitched like a little girl about Rick Santorum’s robocalls to Michigan Democrats, his campaign turned around and used CNN footage of Democrats explaining why they were voting for Santorum instead of Romney.

ED’S NOTE:This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in political advertising, search-engine optimization, and viral marketing as it is used on the campaign trail. No candidates or political groups are endorsed. The opinions expressed here about the advertisements are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

Rick Santorum’s lighthearted “Rombo” ad takes aim at Mitt Romney’s negative attacks on his rivals — and it uses a headline (or hed) I wrote for a USA TODAY story. The hed is at the end: “Romney’s negative ads could cost him voters.” My God, the wordsmithery! Beyond clever, no? No. It’s the SEO’d (search-engine-optimized) hed I wrote for online. (As a rule, headline writers rarely every go for clever when writing heds for online; the searchbot algorithms don’t pick up smart plays on words and such.) The one I wrote for print had a little more flair: “Sharpest attacks cut both ways” with the deckhed: “Strikes on rivals could cost Romney.” Was it the best hed I ever wrote for the print product? No. But it said what the story was about, it worked on the page, and — most important — it will look good in my PDF portfolio.

I’m going to risk making myself ill and start including political ads here in my roundups. If between work, classes, homework, housework, and life, I get the chance to analyze the ads, then I will. Otherwise, the posts will be light, and viewers will be left to make their own judgments — trying to separate truth from fiction and keeping their lunch down in the process.

No, really, who’s J?

Editor. Writer. Consultant.

I'm an editor and writer with certificates in public relations and ecommerce. In another life, I was a systems analyst, juggling both desktop- and server-side operations.

As an editor on the USA TODAY Mobile+Social team, I manage Your Take, USA TODAY's user-generated project that features some of the nation's best amateur photographers. I also pitch in on the USA TODAY social platforms, delivering accurate, shareable, real-time news to our 2.5 million Facebook fans and our 2 million Twitter followers.

Outside of my work at USA TODAY, I am proud to serve on the Northern Virginia College Marketing Advisory Committee. As a committee member, I'm lending my knowledge and expertise to ensure the college's Marketing curriculum is relevant and responsive to the needs of the students and the surrounding business communities.

When I'm not editing for USA TODAY, I write an occasional short story or poem.My work has appeared in Calliope and the feminist journal So to Speak; I'm also a regular contributor to the flash-fiction sites Paragraph Planet and Doorknobs & Bodypaint. I've also interviewed editors for The Review Review, a comprehensive guide to literary journals and the people who produce them.